Chapter 1 #2
Yvonne gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth. ‘Oh God! Sorry. I didn’t mean it’s great that your mum’s in hospital—’
‘It’s okay,’ Claire said, with a reassuring grin. ‘I know what you meant. And it is nice to be able to go out on a Friday night for a change – even if I do feel a bit guilty that I’m enjoying myself because Mum’s in hospital.’ Her mother was undergoing hip-replacement surgery.
‘Oh, you shouldn’t feel guilty. That’s not fair. You should be able to go out at the weekend anyway. Why should you always be the one staying home with her?’
‘Well, I live with her…’
‘Even so, you shouldn’t have to give up your social life completely. What about your brothers? Why don’t they take a turn sometimes and let you go out?’
‘Well, they have kids, so I suppose it’s difficult,’ she said, without conviction, parroting the excuses her brothers and their wives would make for themselves.
It was okay for her to criticise them, but if anyone outside the family did, she automatically leapt to their defense.
But neither of them was much help, and Claire sometimes felt she might as well have been an only child.
Neil and Ronan were both considerably older than her so she had often felt like one growing up.
There were only a couple of years between her brothers, but Claire was what their mother, Espie, termed ‘the shakings of the bag’, arriving ten years after Neil, the eldest, when Espie was forty and her marriage to their feckless father was stuttering to its end.
‘All the more reason,’ Yvonne said. ‘Your need is greater. You’re single – you should be out there having fun and meeting people.
They’re married. They have kids. Their lives are already over.
They’ll only be sitting at home watching TV or talking about gardening and…
kitchen islands and stuff,’ she said, wrinkling her nose.
‘They can do that just as easily at your mum’s house and give you a break. ’
It was nothing Claire hadn’t frequently thought, but she didn’t want to dwell on it now. ‘Anyway, I doubt I’ll be meeting anyone on Friday. They’ll all be too young for me.’
‘Oh, come on, you’re not that much older than me.’
Though there were only seven years between them, Claire felt positively ancient next to Yvonne. That was the effect living with a sixty-eight-year-old woman had on her.
‘Anyway, there’ll be lots of people there. They won’t all be my age. Luca’s coming,’ Yvonne said. ‘He’s around your age.’ Her eyes lit up. ‘He might do for you,’ she said thoughtfully.
‘Please! I don’t want your sloppy seconds.’
‘Oh, he’s not! We went out a couple of times, but I never got jiggy with him in the end.’
‘But I thought you told me he had a huge willy?’
‘Oh, I’ve never actually seen it, but you can tell he’s got a huge one the minute he walks into a room.’
‘Why? Does he pull it after him on a trolley?’
Yvonne laughed. ‘No. But no one has that much swagger unless it’s backed up by a very large package.’
‘So, too much man for you, was he?’
‘I think he was. He kind of scares me a bit.’
‘But you think he’d be all right for me?’
‘Oh, he’s not creepy or anything,’ Yvonne said hastily. ‘But he can be a bit… dark. I suppose he has the artistic temperament. He can be a proper moody bastard.’
‘Sounds charming!’
‘And he’s such a player. I just like them a bit more on the tame side.’
‘That’s true.’ Yvonne usually went for rather fey, borderline effeminate pretty boys, and would spend hours fretting about which side of the metrosexual/gay border they occupied.
She was always asking Claire’s opinion about whether a straight man would have facials, watch Strictly Come Dancing or own a Kylie Minogue CD.
‘I think you were right – I only went out with him to piss off Dad.’
‘I never said that!’
‘But it’s what you were thinking.’
Claire smiled guiltily. She had indeed suspected that Yvonne had only ever been interested in Luca for his shock value.
She could guess Yvonne’s uptight, stuck-up father would consider him wildly unsuitable boyfriend material for his precious only daughter.
An unemployed, permanently broke artist, he apparently lived in squalor in a notoriously rough area of the inner city.
‘And you were right,’ Yvonne said. ‘See? You’re so wise. That’s the advantage of age.’
‘Hey, a minute ago you were saying I wasn’t much older than you.’
‘Well, you’re older in wisdom.’
‘Anyway, if you couldn’t handle Luca, what makes you think I could?’ Claire might have been older in years – and even in wisdom – but she knew that Yvonne had far more experience than her when it came to men.
‘I have complete faith in you,’ Yvonne said airily.
‘Seriously, Yvonne, you know I’m out of practice. Don’t you think I should start off with someone a bit easier?’
Claire’s social life had taken a nosedive three years ago when she’d moved home to look after her mother, and somehow she’d never managed to kick-start it again.
She still couldn’t understand how she had let herself get into such a rut, but time had gone by so quickly.
Suddenly she’d realised she hadn’t been on a single date since she’d returned to Ireland.
And the longer it went on, the harder it was to change anything.
She felt like such a fuddy-duddy, compared to Yvonne, her life so circumscribed.
When she had been Yvonne’s age life had seemed full of possibilities.
Studying in Edinburgh, she’d had a nice circle of friends, gone on dates… It all seemed like a lifetime ago now.
‘Luca might be just what you need,’ Yvonne said, her eyes bright. ‘Dive in at the deep end. I mean, you don’t have much time, do you? Your mother isn’t going to be laid up for ever.’
‘No, that’s true. All good things must come to an end,’ Claire said drily.
‘Oh, you know what I mean.’
‘Well, I’ll do my best.’
‘Still, maybe you’re right – from nought to Luca might be a bit too much. But there’ll be lots of cute guys to choose from. Don’t worry, you won’t go home empty-handed.’
It sounded more like a threat than a promise. Claire was dreading this party more by the minute. She was relieved when Tom emerged from the back room where he had been doing the ordering and paperwork.
‘How’s your mother, Claire?’ he asked, as he joined them.
‘She’s fine. I called the hospital and she’s over the operation, back on the ward.’
‘Glad to hear it. She’ll be there for a few more days, I suppose?’
‘Yeah, they’re keeping her in for two or three days, and then she has four weeks in a convalescent home.’
‘Oh, that’s great. It’ll be a nice break for you,’ Tom said. ‘Why don’t you go early today? You can visit her and still get home at a decent hour.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Positive. Yvonne and I can cope with the hordes,’ he said, indicating the lone customer he had passed earlier, who was browsing the travel shelves. ‘Can’t we, Yvonne?’
‘Absolutely!’
‘Okay, thanks.’ Claire smiled gratefully at him.
‘Oh, look! He’s getting away!’ Yvonne wailed as the customer headed for the door.
‘He was looking for guides to Bolivia,’ Tom said. ‘We don’t have any.’
‘But we’ve got Chile!’ Yvonne said, already moving from behind the desk to chase after the man. ‘I hear that’s much nicer.’
‘She’s amazing, isn’t she?’ Tom said admiringly, as Yvonne accosted the man at the door and led him gently back towards the travel section. ‘Born to sell.’
‘No one goes home empty-handed…’